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Before Newly can upload your app to TestFlight, the project needs a connection to your Apple Developer account. You set this up once per project, inside the Ship to TestFlight card. To open the card, ask the agent to “publish to TestFlight”. The full publishing flow is on Ship your iOS app to TestFlight. Before you start:
  • You need to be an organization owner or admin. A member sees “An organization owner or admin must connect Apple and authorize the upload.”
  • You need a saved Newly cloud project, used from a Remote chat. Otherwise the card shows “Publishing requires a saved Newly cloud project.”
  • You need an active Apple Developer Program membership.
Never paste Apple passwords, verification codes or keys into the chat. Enter them only in the card.

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Option 1: Sign in with your Apple ID

This is the default, and the quickest way to connect.
1

Sign in to Apple

Under “Sign in to App Store Connect”, enter your Apple ID email and password, then press Sign in to Apple.
2

Enter the verification code

Apple sends a 6-digit code to your trusted Apple devices. Enter it and press Verify.
3

Choose your Apple team

Under “Choose your Apple team.”, pick the team that owns the app.
4

Choose the app

Pick an existing app from the list, or choose Create a new app and enter:
  • an app name of up to 30 characters
  • a bundle ID, such as com.yourcompany.yourapp
If Apple returns more than one developer team, the card asks you to “Choose the developer team that owns this app.”
5

Connect

Press Connect selected app. The card shows “Preparing Apple publishing…” while Newly sets things up, then shows your bundle ID and the Build & upload to TestFlight button.

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What Newly creates in your Apple account

When you connect with your Apple ID, Newly sets up everything a TestFlight upload needs:
  • The app record in App Store Connect, if you chose Create a new app.
  • An App Store Connect API key named “Newly” followed by your app name. It has the Admin role, so it can access every app in that Apple team. The card tells you this before you connect. If setup stops before it finishes, Newly tries to delete the key.
  • The bundle ID registration, if the bundle ID isn’t registered yet.
  • An App Store provisioning profile named “Newly app-store” followed by your bundle ID.
  • A distribution certificate. Newly reuses it for all your organization’s apps in the same Apple team, so it doesn’t create a new one for every project.
These appear in your Apple account like any other app, key, profile or certificate. Newly doesn’t offer a way to download the certificates or keys it created.

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Option 2: Use an App Store Connect API key

Choose this if you’d rather not sign in with your Apple ID, or your team manages its own keys.
  1. In the card, press Use an API key instead.
  2. Fill in Bundle ID, Apple team ID, API key ID and Issuer ID. The team ID and key ID are each 10 uppercase letters or digits.
  3. Press Choose private key (.p8) and pick the key file you downloaded from App Store Connect.
  4. Press Connect App Store Connect.
With this option:
  • The app must already exist in App Store Connect with the same bundle ID. Newly doesn’t create it for you.
  • The key needs permission to create signing certificates and provisioning profiles. Newly checks that the key works and can see your app when you connect. It only finds out whether the key can create certificates and profiles when a release runs, so a key without those permissions fails at that point.
On Mac: if choosing the .p8 file shows “Open the cloud publishing card in your browser to select a key.”, open the same chat in the web app at app.newly.app and connect from there. Apple ID sign-in doesn’t ask for a file.
To switch back, press Use Apple sign-in.

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How your Apple details are stored

  • Your Apple password and verification code are used only for that sign-in.
  • The publishing key and signing details are encrypted and used only for publishing.
  • None of it is shown to the agent or copied into your project’s code.
  • The connection belongs to one project. Another project needs its own connection.

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Change the app, bundle ID or team

Open the Ship to TestFlight card for the project and press Change Apple settings. Then connect again with either option. You can’t change Apple settings while a release is running. If you try, Newly shows “Wait for the current release before replacing Apple credentials.” Wait for the release to finish, then try again.

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Signing certificates

Apple limits how many distribution certificates a team can have. If your team is at the limit, or Apple reports a conflicting certificate, the release fails and the card shows “Too many signing certificates” or “Signing certificate needs attention”. Press Manage signing certificates. You have two ways to fix it.
Use this if you already have a distribution certificate for this team exported as a .p12 file.
  1. Press Choose signing identity (.p12) and pick the file. It must be under 128 KB and contain one private key for an active distribution certificate in the same Apple team.
  2. Enter the file’s password, if it has one.
  3. Press Import signing identity.
  4. When you see “Signing certificate ready. You can retry publishing.”, press Retry.
Newly encrypts the private key. The file password is used only to import it.On Mac, if you see “Open cloud publishing in your browser to import a signing identity.”, open the same chat in the web app and import from there.
You can’t change certificates while any release in your organization is running. Newly shows “Wait for active releases in this organization before changing signing certificates.” Wait for it to finish first.

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Connection errors

Your Apple account signed in, but Apple didn’t return a team that can sign apps. Check that the account has an active Apple Developer Program membership and access to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles. Then press Retry team lookup.
Re-enter your current Apple Account email and password, then press Retry Apple sign-in.
Apple needs you to finish something in your account first. Sign in on Apple’s website, finish the prompts, then try again in the card.
Apple already has an app with that name. Choose another name.
That bundle ID isn’t available to your team. Choose a unique bundle ID owned by your team.
You’re using an API key, and App Store Connect has no app with that bundle ID. Create the app in App Store Connect, or use Apple ID sign-in and choose Create a new app.

Ship your iOS app to TestFlight

Build and upload your app from the chat.

App name, icon, bundle ID and version

How the bundle ID from your Apple connection is used.